Newswire

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle testified in New York that before Donald Trump bought the USFL's New Jersey Generals, Trump had attempted to purchase the then Baltimore Colts of the National Football League.

Completing his fifth day of testimony in the United States Football League's $1.5-million antitrust suit against the NFL, Rozelle said that in the summer of 1983, about six months before Trump bought the Generals, he received a call from an unnamed intermediary saying that Trump had an interest in buying the Colts.

Rozelle said he told the caller that Trump would be wasting his time because he didn't think Colt owner Robert Irsay was willing to sell. Irsay moved the team to Indianapolis in March 1984.

The disclosure came under questioning by USFL attorney Harvey Myerson, who was attempting to get Rozelle to acknowledge that he attempted to "co-opt" some of the wealthier USFL owners into joining the NFL.